Russia has proposed extending the mandate for a vital border crossing into northwestern Syria for only six months as fears in the region are mounting over the possible effects on humanitarian aid if the crossing is shut.

As the U.N. Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on humanitarian aid deliveries to northwest Syria from Turkey, Russia agreed to continue for six months — not a year, as many council members, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and more than 30 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) want.

Russia proposed amendments to a draft resolution by Ireland and Norway, reducing their yearlong delivery time frame. Council diplomats said consultations continued late Wednesday to see if a compromise could be reached.

The Security Council scheduled a vote for Thursday morning. If no compromise appeared, the draft resolution by Ireland and Norway to extend cross-border deliveries for 12 months would be voted on first. If it failed to get nine votes or vetoed by Russia, they would then put the Russian resolution with a six-month extension to a vote.

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Idlib. The council later authorized aid delivery through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended for a year on July 9, 2021, and expires this Sunday.

The Russian proposal called for increased efforts to ensure "full, safe and unhindered" deliveries of humanitarian assistance across conflict lines within Syria, according to the Russian draft obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press (AP).

It also would authorize the establishment of "a special working group" comprising concerned council members, major donors, interested regional parties and representatives of international humanitarian agencies "in order to regularly review and follow-up on the implementation of this resolution."

Neither of those proposals was in the Ireland-Norway draft resolution.

Russia has argued aid can instead transit via regime-controlled parts of the country across conflict lines.

But aid groups have been reluctant to shift their massive operations to go through areas held by the regime of Bashar Assad, itself subject to sanctions. Opposition activists and residents warn that is something the authorities in Damascus would exploit as a pressure tactic against the last opposition stronghold of Idlib.

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing last year bound for the Idlib region, the last opposition bastion in Syria and home to around 3 million people.

Mounting fear

Over the past two years, Adila Afesh has seen the food assistance her Syrian family receives shrink by nearly two-thirds.

Now, she fears Russia — perhaps seeking to retaliate against Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine — will block the renewal of a U.N. Security Council resolution enabling aid to Syrians who, like her family, live in Idlib province.

Such a move would mean Afesh and her seven children — along with 4 million others in Idlib — will have to survive on even less.

"If, God forbid, aid is stopped, it means that they have sentenced us to death. Death by hunger," she said on a recent day in the tent she lives in with her family, her cat deep asleep in her lap as her children played nearby.

The jobless woman says the family survives on two meals a day, mostly made up of rice or bulgur. Soon, she says, "we might have to fight in order to get a bite of food."

In 2014, aid flowed into Syria from four border crossings. Since then, U.N. Security Council permanent member Russia has forced the council to close three of the four crossings.

Aid agencies warn that if Russia vetoes the resolution, food would be depleted in Idlib and surrounding areas by September, putting the lives of some 4.1 million people, many of them displaced by the conflict and living in tent settlements, at risk.

Afesh, 37, who was displaced from the northern city of Aleppo in 2016, said her main concern before moving to Idlib province used to be where to hide with her four sons and three daughters from regime airstrikes. Since December 2016, the family that lost its main breadwinner seven years ago has been living relatively calm close to the Turkish border. But soon, they might not have food on the table.

Syria's economy is suffering its worst period since the crisis began in 2011. That's the result of an array of troubles, including crippling Western sanctions, widespread corruption, coronavirus, rising food prices because of the war in Ukraine and an economic meltdown in neighboring Lebanon — Damascus’ main gate to the outside world and home to 1 million Syrian refugees.

"The situation in Syria has always been highly politicized, but this year the stakes are clearly higher with everything that’s going on in Ukraine and the tensions between Russia and the United States and European countries," said Mark Cutts, the U.N.’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator.

Cutts told the AP that "people will certainly die" if the Security Council resolution is not extended. He added there would be a massive crisis as hospitals go without the necessary medical supplies and people will not get the vaccinations they need.

Cutts said delivering aid through Turkey is direct and sufficient. If aid has to come through government areas, it will have to pass through an active front line. "This is still a war zone," he said.

He said that over the past 12 months, five convoys have crossed from government-controlled areas while 800 trucks cross from Turkey every month. He said last year they were reaching 2.4 million people in northwest Syria and if there is funding, more should be reached.

Abdul-Razzaq Awad, a manager at Syria Relief, a local aid group, warned that aid agencies now are offering 50% of what they used to give due to the war in Ukraine. He said that if Bab al-Hawa is closed and aid has to come from government-controlled areas, he expects it to drop to about 20% of what used to be delivered before the Ukraine war.

In late June, 29 aid agencies came together to share one message, which is that a humanitarian "catastrophe will happen" should the U.N. Security Council fail to allow lifesaving aid and services to be delivered across the border.

At stake is access to food, vaccinations against COVID-19, critical medical supplies and essential services, including health care, access to clean water and education for millions of Syrians.

"Removing this channel of assistance will have devastating humanitarian impacts on civilians and there is no viable alternative," said the agencies, including International Rescue Committee, CARE International, World Vision International, Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and Mercy Corps.

"Now it is the time for the U.N. Security Council to correct course and show it can put people’s lives above politics," said David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee.

Cutts, the U.N. official, said the world should do something for residents of northwest Syria.

"This is actually one of the most vulnerable civilian populations anywhere in the world," he said.